Navarre Beach
National Seashore on both sides, the longest pier in Florida, and the quietest stretch of sand on this coast.
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The development stops, and the dunes take over.
Navarre Beach sits on Santa Rosa Island with Gulf Islands National Seashore on both sides of it. That is the whole story of this place. Drive a few minutes in either direction and the condos end, the road narrows, and there is nothing but sand and sea oats and water on both sides of you.
It is smaller than Pensacola Beach and quieter than Destin, and the people who come back every year come back for exactly that reason. There is one pier, a handful of restaurants, a marine park, and about twelve miles of protected shoreline you can walk without passing a building.
The reason it stays quiet
Gulf Islands National Seashore on both sides
Navarre Beach is bracketed by federally protected land. To the west, the seashore runs most of the way to Pensacola Beach. To the east, it continues toward Fort Walton. Neither stretch will ever be developed.
That protection is why the dunes here are tall and intact, why the beach stays wide, and why you can find a stretch of sand to yourself in the middle of July if you are willing to walk ten minutes.
Gulf side
The landmark
The longest pier in Florida
Navarre Beach Pier reaches farther into the Gulf of America than any other pier in the state. Walk to the end on a clear day and you are standing over water deep enough to watch the color change beneath you, pale green over the sandbar and deep blue past it.
People fish it year round. You do not need a license to fish from the pier, and you do not need to fish at all to walk it.
Navarre Beach Pier
The side visitors miss
The sound side is a different day
Santa Rosa Sound runs behind the island, and it is nothing like the Gulf. Shallow, calm, warm, and flat enough that people anchor boats on the sandbar and stand around in waist deep water all afternoon.
It is where locals take small kids, launch kayaks and paddleboards, and go when the surf flag is flying red on the other side of the road.
Santa Rosa Sound
Look around
Stand on the water off the end of the pier
Drag to look in any direction. Shot from above the Gulf a few hundred feet off the pier, with the island running east and west.
Navarre Beach after dark
The island looks nothing like this at noon
Full moon over the Gulf
The skyline, looking north
Both frames were shot after twenty two hundred on the same flight, on a night the moon broke through the cloud long enough to lay a path across the water. Aerial work here is flown under Part 107 at or below four hundred feet. The pier stays lit most of the night, and the sound side goes completely dark.
Worth the drive
Gulf Boulevard to Pensacola Beach
Head west out of Navarre Beach and the buildings stop within a mile. What follows is several miles of National Seashore with the Gulf on one side and the sound on the other, no houses, no hotels, nothing but road and sand. It is one of the best coastal drives in the country and almost nobody writes about it.
Read the guideGetting to the sand
Public beach accesses
Navarre Beach has numbered public accesses running the length of the island, each with a boardwalk over the dunes. Some have parking and restrooms, some are just a walkover and a sign. The numbers count up as you drive east.
- ParkingFree at the marine park and the pier lot. The numbered accesses have small lots that fill by late morning in summer.
- QuietThe higher numbered accesses toward the eastern end see the least traffic. Walk two minutes from any walkover and the crowd thins out.
- DunesStay on the walkovers. The sea oats hold the dunes together and they are protected, so cutting through carries a fine.
Navarre Beach, photographed
From the air
At the water line
On the dune line
Why they call it the Emerald Coast
From across the sound
Mid summer
Go deeper
Navarre Beach guides
Every public beach access
All the numbered accesses, which have parking and restrooms, and which ones stay quiet.
Navarre Beach Pier
Hours, cost, what is biting, and where to stand for the best view.
Gulf Boulevard
The undeveloped stretch running west toward Pensacola Beach.
Navarre Beach Sea Turtle Conservation Center
Coming soon. Sea turtle rehabilitation and education, right on the island.
Who wrote this
Written and photographed by Tye Odom, who lives in Navarre and drives this island most weeks. Every photograph on this page was taken here. Nearby: Pensacola Beach to the west and Fort Walton Beach to the east.